September 2014
Welcome Back!
An exciting new school year has begun bringing
new faces, programs, courses, activities and clubs
for Florida’s virtual students. I commend you for
your vision and thank you for your enthusiasm to
provide your students with great new learning
experiences. Please continue to share your won­
derful and exciting news with us so that we can
share it with others here and beyond. I wish you
and your school family much success in this new
school year.
Sally
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Thank you Barbara Dreyer! As the leading state in online education, Florida always had a very special
place in the heart of Barbara Dreyer, the co-founder and CEO of Connections
Education. Barbara was a longtime fan of Florida Virtual School, and when
the opportunity arose in 2003 to create a full-time virtual K-8 school in Flori­
da, Connections jumped at the chance. For the net 10-plus years, as Connec­
tions Education grew to serve nearly 60,000 students across the country, Barbara spent
more time in Tallahassee than in any other state capital. She got to know Governor Jeb
Bush and Florida’s legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle, made dear friends among
innovators in the Department of Education such as Sally Roberts, and developed a groundbreaking partnership with FLVS to combine
the strengths of FLVS and Connections in
service of students throughout the state. So
it was perfectly fitting that when Barbara
passed away early on the morning of Sep­
tember 2, after a tough battle with cancer,
her colleagues’ first choice as a speaker at
her memorial service would be Julie Young,
founder of FLVS. For more about Barbara
Dreyer and her passion for quality education
in
Florida
and
beyond
see
www.rememberingbarbaradreyer.wordpress.com .
Submitted by Mickey Revenaugh
“Knowledge will bring you the opportunity
to make a difference.” Claire Fagin
Inside this issue:
Hillsborough Virtual School
2
District Google Group
2
FLVS
3, 5
Orange County Virtual School
4
FDVIPN Statewide PLCs
5
K12
6
News From The Tower
6
Hillsborough Virtual School is Ready for the New Year! Hillsborough Virtual School is excited to an­
nounce the addition of several new teachers to
have an increased full-time staff of 34 instruc­
tors plus 3 adjuncts! In addition to their
already established National Elementary
Honor Society, National Junior Honor
Society, and National Honor Society
organizations, we are welcoming Spanish
Honor Society and French Honor Society this
year.
Submitted by Tanya Grinnell
Barnes and Noble in South Tampa, hosted the second
back to school meet and greet/fundraiser event.
Students and parents were able to talk to instructors
and administrators before the start of school.
Tanya Grinnell and Denee Upshaw
Welcome New Virtual Contacts! Connect with the Google Group! As the new year begins we want to welcome our new contacts and let them know we are here to support
them! The Florida District Virtual Instruction Program Network (FLDVIPN) hosts an online Google Group
for district virtual school administrators. The Google Group provides a forum for administrators to share
ideas, ask questions and support one another. It is through this group that virtual school administrators, who
may not have counterparts in their own districts, are able to learn from one another and better support their
students, teachers and families. To join please contact Joanne Glenn: [email protected]
Submitted by Heather Price
Page 2
THE VIRTUAL VIEW
Florida Virtual School News FLVS has teamed up with Grom Social to develop an exciting new mobile math app called Solar
Skate. Solar Skate integrates math into the skateboarding storyline as gamers solve geometry puzzles to fix
their broken skate track. This unique educational tool reviews 4th through 8th grade Math Standards and is
available on iTunes for Apple iOS devices. To learn more about the game, visit www.flvs.net/SolarSkate
today!
Zach Marks, FLVS student and creator of Grom Social, was at The Florida Mall in Orlando helping to launch
the app Solar Skate. Visitor's had the opportunity to try out the game and meet with FLVS and Grom teams.
Florida Virtual School® (FLVS®) has been named a Learning! 100 Award winner by Elearning! Media
Group for its learning culture, innovation and high performance. FLVS received the award for Transfor­
mations, its multi-phase orientation consisting of training sessions at its headquarters and online-hosted
training sessions. The award was presented August 25th at the Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo in
Anaheim, CA, and recognized 60 corporate and 40 public sector organizations who drove performance
through learning.
FLVS also has a brand new Kindergarten-1st grade part-time learning program that offers reading, mathe­
matics, PE, science, social studies and art, highlighting the best of blended learning with class meetings and
virtual curriculum. Students attend classes online together with a teacher two days a week at set times. Stu­
dents then have a follow up with online lessons provided by the teacher.
Submitted by Suzan Kurdak
SEPTEMBER 2014
Page 3
Orange County Virtual School is Growing! Orange County Virtual School is growing by leaps and bounds! This
school year welcomes an expansion of programs to benefit our virtual
students. The Innovative Motivating Positive Achievement Completing
Targeted goals (IMPACT) is a program where teachers are working
with students toward credit recovery in zone school computer labs. Our
blended program includes students from all 19 high schools who are
learning U.S. Government and Economics via FLVS curriculum guided
by their classroom teachers and overseen by our blended learning spe­
cialists. OCVS is also home to an elementary program taught by Orange
County public school teachers using the Calvert curriculum. Additional­
ly, we are in our 4th year running our virtual franchise program, which
provides virtual learning opportunities to part time, home education, and
full time students across the county. Graduates who were full time OCVS Principal, Brandi Gurley
OCVS students can be seen in the image below along with their teach­ congratulates Cardboard cutout
ers.
(Yes it is a cutout…look closely)
Submitted by Elena Geiser Hogan
Page 4
of valedictorian, Riley
McDonough. He was unable to
attend graduation due to being on
an international tour with his
band Before You Exit.
VIRTUAL VIEW
FDVIPN Kicks Off Statewide PLCs! On Thursday, August 28th the Florida District Vir­
tual Instruction Program Network kicked off their
Statewide PLC group for the 2014-2015 school
year. In attendance were 154 teachers, counselors
and administrators from district virtual schools
across the state. The purpose of the PLC group is to
provide virtual instructors with opportunities to
meet their counterparts across the state so they can
collaborate, share best practices, create live lessons,
and combine their collective resources to en­
sure student success. Teachers meet monthly online
with their subject area specific PLC group and
many also share a live lesson calendar so that stu­
dents in virtual courses across the state have oppor­
tunities to participate in live lessons togeth­
er. Through the Statewide PLCs teachers are able
to connect with colleagues across the state and to­
gether serve their students with a higher level of
excellence.
Submitted by Katie Morgan
FLVS Club Day 2014
FLVS Student Ambassadors and Fine Arts at Club Day. Submitted by Rebecca Dedo
September 2014
Page 5
K12 Off to a Strong Start! K12 is kicking this year off with a Strong Start! They have been
holding live Program Overview sessions to educate families on the
ins and outs of their program before they enroll, as well as, in­
formative sessions for newly enrolled families with tips and tricks
for a successful school year.
To keep families connected over the summer leading into the new
school year, they launched a new website that focuses on new fami­
lies and it gives them the tools they need to get started in the pro­
gram. They call this the Strong Start Website! It includes, but is not
limited to, support from the parent network, summer online camps,
and parent and teacher toolkits.
K12 is excited and looking forward to the new school year!
Submitted Traci Hill
News from the Tower
This year brings the launch of the Florida Online Course Catalog. This catalog
showcases online courses offered by school districts, approved virtual providers
and Florida Virtual School. We thank the many districts who have already entered
their courses into the catalog and stand ready to assist those that have not done so
yet. Please send any questions related to the online catalog to:
[email protected].
The VIP provider approval began on September 1, a month earlier this year, in
hopes of getting the list of approved providers to districts earlier. Five providers have registered to apply
thus far. In addition, the rule and application for course provider approval goes to the State Board of Edu­
cation in November. Plans are to launch the first course provider approval process in January, 2015 for
the following school year.
We Need You!
Roses are red, violets are blue, the Virtual View newsletter sure does need YOU! Please submit articles and pictures for the December newsletter to [email protected]. Page 6
THE VIRTUAL VIEW